Candlelight gathering to remember Jeremy Lum set for Sunday

Jeremy Lum

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LATHROP – Family and friends of the late Jeremy Lum are inviting the public to a “peaceful candlelight gathering” to mark the 30th day of his passing.

The “moment of silence” will be held at the northwest corner of Lathrop Road and Woodfield Drive starting at 7 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 9. Connie Lum Perez who is helping organize the roughly hour-long event said they will have candles available for those who will be there.

“We just need people to bring their good energy. We want to bring good energy back in that corner,” she said, which is near the place where her nephew lived.

“There will be a blessing made by Pastor (Johnnie) Clark, Jr. of the Living Word Ministries in Lathrop. He’d met Jeremy once or twice,” she added.

The pastor and his congregation just moved into the old Delta Market building on Seventh Street that is owned by the Lum family. The church is right next to the offices of the Lathrop Police Services which the city leases from the Lums.

Since his death on July 12, family members and friends of the young man who was bipolar launched a campaign to turn the tragedy of his death into something positive by starting a massive lobbying effort to have a national database of those who suffer from this condition established that would be available online on the Internet. They hope that such a database could bring changes in arrest protocols involving individuals who are bipolar.

The body of the 28-year-old University of California, Berkeley graduate was found on Sunday, July 12, floating in the San Joaquin River just west of the San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office where he was released on July 9 from the county jail, barefoot and without a car. The day before, the philosophy major was arrested for being drunk in public after he was found unconscious on the front lawn of a home not far from his house on Lathrop Road. Family members later said he may have suffered a bipolar episode. Barefoot and without his wallet or cell phone with him, the Lathrop-born and raised Sierra High School graduate was picked up by police and taken to the county jail where he was kept overnight. He was released the following morning at 7 o’clock and then disappeared.

Concerned family members reported him missing the same day and immediately started a massive ground and air search. His father, Jerry Lum, himself a flyer and a member of Civil Air Patrol, joined the air search.

Family members maintained that Jeremy Lum should not have been released from jail when he was ill. Sheriff’s authorities said that police detected a strong odor of alcohol on his breath when he was arrested.

At the time of his death, Jeremy was enrolled as a nursing student at Modesto Junior College to pursue his dream of working as a traveling nurse.